Commander Red
|Race=Human |Gender=Male |Date of birth= |Date of death=Age 750 Age 749 (The Path to Power) |Address=Red Ribbon Army HQ |Occupation=Military |Allegiance=Red Ribbon Army (leader) |FamConnect= Android 9 (duplicate) Staff Officer Black (right-hand man) "Red's Pet Cat-like Animal" (pet) }} Commander Red (レッド総帥) is an antagonist character in the ''Dragon Ball'' manga, and the anime Dragon Ball. He is the commander-in-chief of the most feared and ruthless militaristic crime organization: the Red Ribbon Army. After discovering that his enemy, Goku, has a much more sophisticated and superior Dragon Radar, he is angered at the fact that he invested so much in his radar and takes many wary chances only to be contested by a mere child. Gero later developed a fully artificial replica of him named Android 9, which eventually came to act as the "leader" of the Red Pants Army. Appearance Red's appearance consists of a eye patch covering his right eye (the eye patch is red in the manga and black in the anime), a black suit (although on a few occasions, he has worn more detailed outfits), large white hair in the manga and ginger in the anime and, most importantly, his short height which he despises, a huge plot point in the Red Ribbon Army Arc. Personality Commander Red is shown to be a very terrible leader of the Red Ribbon Army, yet also a very ruthless one as well. He is often very sarcastic and insulting towards Staff Officer Black, even when the latter makes valid suggestions to him. He is also very disloyal to his own army, viewing them as nothing more than pawns for his own goals, as evidenced by his desire to get the Dragon Balls as well as his own willingness to destroy his own army to, in Black's own words, "satisfy his own vanity" to wish to become taller. He is also shown as very childish and impatient, and is not willing for the army to take a slight misstep in their operations to achieve his goals. He also demonstrates absolutely no remorse for the lives he throws away for his pointless goals of becoming taller even right before Black kills him after protesting against his goal upon learning it, which alongside his aforementioned frequency in executing his own soldiers for small offenses implies that Red was a psychopath. Red is also a chain smoker, always having a pipe or a box of large cigars close to him, smoking often. His smoking habit is retained after he becomes Android 9, although he instead uses a metallic pipe. Commander Red owns a cat, which he frequently uses to attack Red Ribbon Army personnel entering his office to test their reflexes, such as Colonel Silver. It is also implied that any soldier who fails to effectively evade the cat (such as one soldier who allegedly lost an eye due to not reacting quick enough) is executed. Biography Past Ever since Elementary School, his friends often made fun of Red's size, calling him "shrimp" and even remarking that even though he is short, he has an old man's face. This is the reason why Commander Red hates being short and desires to be taller.[http://www.kanzentai.com/trans-daiz07.php?m=03&id=character_p-r#link Daizenshuu 7, 1996] At some point, he also loses his right eye, necessitating the use of an eyepatch. ''Dragon Ball'' Red Ribbon Army Saga Commander Red is first introduced when he summons Colonel Silver to his office. As soon as Silver arrives at his office, he sics his pet cat at Silver, and then congratulates Silver for managing to have the reflexes to dodge the cat, noting that the previous soldier summoned to his office lost his eye when he attempted to dodge his cat, and hints that the soldier in question was executed. He then gives Silver his mission to retrieve the Dragon Ball located in the Jungle. After Silver had failed his mission, he has Silver brought to his office, and chews Silver out on his failure, also remarking that he will be executed, as there are no second chances in the Red Ribbon Army. He then alerts General White to Goku's arrival. After White fell to Goku, he hires Hasky to steal the Dragon Balls and presumably assassinate Goku. Shortly after Hasky fails to retrieve the Dragon Balls from Goku, as well as failing to assassinate him, Commander Red decides to give General Blue the mission to kill Goku, along with a report on Goku. Eventually, Commander Red gives Blue orders to retrieve the Dragon Balls after supplying Blue with information on the closest locations of the Dragon Balls via their own Dragon Radar, as well as retrieve Goku's Dragon Radar and to retrieve the creator of the Dragon Radar (then believed to be Master Roshi). During this time, he also has a goat painter paint a mural of him, although he also has the painter try to make him much taller, being even taller than Staff Officer Black while painting the portrait, resulting in him telling off Black when he decides to joke about it. Afterwards, when Goku manages to get to the camp General Blue's unit was occupying, Goku starts playing with a communication radio, causing Red to demand attention, and then demand if Goku knows who he is. However, the feedback static as well as their shouting cause both Red and Goku's ears to hurt, with the latter eventually destroying the radio. When the Red Ribbon Army is having problems with Goku, Red plans to hire the famed contract killer named Mercenary Tao to assassinate Goku and return with the four Dragon Balls that General Blue was unsuccessful at retrieving. When Red does call in Tao, General Blue arrives shortly after also, handing Red the Dragon Radar that he managed to confiscate from Goku. Red however still proceeds to punish Blue, due to failing the exact mission given to him. However, Red offers Blue a deal: if Blue manages to defeat Mercenary Tao, he would be spared, and keep his position in the army. When the fight begins, Tao easily manages to kill Blue only using his tongue, much to Red's shock, yet pleasure, knowing that Tao was worth his money. After Tao supposedly kills Goku, he calls Red to tell him the job was done, but Tao realizes he only found three Dragon Balls instead of four. In the meantime, Red plays a bit of golf with Officer Black, and later receives the Seven-Star Dragon Ball from Colonel Violet. After Mercenary Tao fails in trying to receive the fourth, Goku heads straight for the Red Ribbon Army Headquarters, attacking in its very stronghold to collect the Dragon Balls necessary to resurrect Upa's father, Bora, who was killed by Tao. Despite Staff Officer Black's constant advice for Red to abandon the Dragon Balls and escape for safety, Red stubbornly refuses, putting them both in further danger. When it becomes clear that Goku has virtually defeated his entire army, with many escaping from the base, and coming for him, he takes the Dragon Balls and orders Black to fight him. He then runs into a secret compartment. As Black and Goku are fighting, Red uses one last trick and activates the ceiling to be flattened, in a desperate attempt to kill Goku, believing him and Black to be dead. Black becomes very lucky as he is knocked outside the window by Goku when the ceiling comes down, however, Black questions why Red would betray him in order to kill Goku, beginning to feel more negative emotions about his boss. As Commander Red returns to the room, he gloats at his victory and reveals his wish to become taller. Black overhears this and pleads that the Red Ribbon Army did so much and risked a lot for Red's stupid ambition instead of world conquest, and therefore it was not worth the risk and could lead to their ultimate defeat. When Commander Red does not listen, and insists his petty desire is one that shall bring his army's legacy to true greatness, he is shot in the head and killed by Black, who then renames the army the Black Ribbon Army. Film appearances ''The Path to Power'' Commander Red appears in the 10th anniversary remake, Dragon Ball: The Path to Power and has a slight redesign, but to a lesser extent than that of most of the Red Ribbon Army. He is also shown to be slightly more ruthless in his pursuit of his goals, evidenced by how Red had General Blue executed via firing squad simply because the latter had missed one Dragon Ball when retrieving them. The way he meets his end is also slightly different; although Red is still killed by Staff Officer Black after the latter discovers his true intentions with the Dragon Balls, he falls off a ledge right after being shot by Black. Power level The movie pamphlet for Dragon Ball Z: The Tree of Might states that Red has a power level of 100. Video game appearances Commander Red appears in Famicom Jump: Hero Retsuden, Dragon Ball 3: Gokuden, Dragon Ball Z: Super Gokuden: Totsugeki-Hen, Dragon Ball Z: Idainaru Son Goku Densetsu, Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z: Budokai 3, Dragon Ball Z: Infinite World, Dragon Ball Advanced Adventure, Dragon Ball: Revenge of King Piccolo, Dragon Ball: Origins 2, and Dragon Ball RPG: Shōnen-hen. Commander Red is seen with bandages where he obtains his fatal bullet wound on his forehead in Dragon Ball Z: Budokai 3 on the Dragon Arena screen, and in the video game Infinite World where he is seen in the Fighter's Road mode. Coincidentally, both those two video game modes are secret modes that have to be unlocked. Commander Red is seen with other members of the Red Ribbon Army in the background of the Red Ribbon Army Headquarters battle stage in the arcade game Dragon Ball Z 2: Super Battle. Voice actors *Japanese: Kenji Utsumi *English FUNimation dub: Josh Martin *English Blue Water dub: Noah Umholtz *Spanish dub: Idilio Cardoso *Portuguese dub: António Semedo *Brazilian Portuguese dub: Luiz Carlos de Moraes *Latin American dub: Roberto Sen Trivia *Commander Red speaks with a Scottish accent through most of his appearances, but it later faded for the most part save for a few scenes during Goku's assault on the base where a Scottish accent is present. *Despite being the primary antagonist of the Red Ribbon Saga, Red never once meets Goku face to face. *A running gag throughout Dragon Ball is how whenever he is not watching the radar he is playing some sort of game to show how "good of a leader he is." *Commander Red, although being the leader, is mostly very naive as he often needs Staff Officer Black to point out what he needs to do next to stop Goku. This is sometimes seen as strange since he is able to be a great strategist, as shown when he defeats Black in chess''Dragon Ball'' episode 48, "Deep Blue Sea" and how he is very good at pool. *Commander Red and Staff Officer Black look-alikes both reappear as movie makers in Dragon Ball Z (episode 205) during the Great Saiyaman Saga. They are working together on a "Great Saiyaman film" project for Satan TV. The Commander Red look-alike is the director and the Staff Officer Black look-alike seems to be his assistant. The only notable difference between the two is that the director does not possess an eyepatch. *His short stature and desire to takeover the world militarily may be an allusion to Napoleonic complex a pejorative term describing a psychological condition which is said to exist in people of short stature and is derived from a popular misconception that Emperor Napoleon I was short and compensated for his lack of height by seeking power, war and conquest. *One of the medals seen on Red's uniform during the time he had his portrait painted (with exaggerations) resembled the Iron Cross. *In the manga chapter where he dies, Red, in addition to mentioning the time people bullied him for his short height, also mentioned how the girls didn't want to have anything to do with him due to his short height. This bit was not made clear in the Anime equivalent. Gallery See also *Commander Red (Collectibles) References Category:Characters Category:Earthlings Category:Males Category:Red Ribbon Army Category:Tyrants Category:Villains Category:DB Characters